Amateur golfers spend endless hours in an attempt to perfect their golf swing, including professional lessons, video taping their swing for later playback, hitting buckets of balls at the practice range, and various other remedial measures. Among other golf swing characteristics, one of the most important features of the golf swing is the simple concept of a full, steady pendulum swing, both during the back swing and during the impact with the ball.
The back swing is the foundation of the swing in that, like a pendulum, the follow through and the down stroke are very much influenced by the trajectory arc at which the club is moving during the back swing. Said differently, the follow through is generally an "image" of the club head trajectory during the back swing.
Furthermore, the down swing must also be smooth, rather than choppy, and the follow through must be complete, rather than ending after hitting the ball. The purpose of the complete back swing is to transfer the momentum of the club head to the ball, and this momentum must be in the nature of a smooth pendulum type arc rather than chopping or punching at the ball.
Several devices have been developed as practice golf clubs which can be used for improving the golf swing.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,229,980 to Silberman shows a Practice Golf Club having a standard hand grip attached to a short section of shaft, where a club head is tethered by a rope to the shaft section. Due to the flexibility of the club shaft, it may be difficult to have any control whatsoever over the club head leading to an inability to completely remedy the golf swing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,890 to Wieboldt discloses a Golf Club Swing Training Device including a weighted body which is attached to a loop made of soft material such as nylon. The nylon loop is slipped over the shaft of a regular golf club, and the weight is designed to make an audible click when it hits the head of the golf club. The audible click is intended to tell the golfer when his or her back swing has been essentially completed. Although the weighted body is intended to apply an additional force during the swinging of the golf club, the golf club head is still rigidly attached to the shaft, inasmuch as the device is used with a standard golf club. Accordingly, less than the optimal amount of information on the golfer's swing is available to the golfer when using this device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,033 to Miyamoto shows a weight attached to an end of a flexible shaft, where the flexible shaft is formed from fibers and steel wire. While the shaft is flexible, the weight is still somewhat rigidly attached to the shaft, and therefore it may be difficult to precisely determine the trouble areas in one's golf swing.